Research Article

Miriam T. Griffina1

a1 University College, Oxford

In the fourteenth letter to Lucilius, Seneca explains how to avoid physical danger and discomfort: the worst threats to the body come not from nature but from men in power; therefore safety lies in not giving offence. Ad philosophiam confugiendum est (11): the study of philosophy incurs neither envy nor contempt, provided that the philosopher pursues it peacefully and without ostentation.

Footnotes

1 I must record my debt to Professor Eduard Fraenkel for valuable discussion of the letter and for help in drafting this note. Mr. Leighton Reynolds commented on an earlier version.